novelraw Chapter 217: Hyenas at Dusk
Chapter 217: Hyenas at Dusk
"We must take Ethan and leave this place immediately!" Julian proposed.
Yet Yan Xilou shook his head. He seemed to know something, replying calmly, "I regret to say, Mr. Belloc, I'm afraid it's already too late."
He raised a finger, pointing towards the crimson sun sinking below the western desert horizon.
"If my deduction is correct, their mealtime should be approaching as well."
Sure enough, the moment his words fell.
"Awooo—Ooooooo—"
A chilling, mournful howl echoed from the depths of the saline-alkali land dyed red by the setting sun!
The howl was sharp and drawn-out, unlike the roars of any ordinary beasts they knew.
Guided by that first howl.
A second one.A third.
And then dozens more erupted one after another from beyond the distant horizon!
In an instant.
The entire world was filled with nothing but a symphony of death that made the souls of the living tremble!
"Enemy attack! All personnel, combat stations!!"
William's furious roar snapped all the caravan members still immersed in the howls back to reality.
The well-trained Cairo Branch guards and Bedouin guides demonstrated the professional competence expected of qualified I.A.R.C. members.
Two guards rushed to the No. 3 cargo camel loaded with spare coal and fresh water, quickly unloaded the cargo boxes, then slammed the heavy iron-clad wooden crates onto the ground to serve as makeshift breastwork fortifications.
The remaining guards fanned out in a semicircle around this core fortification. They knelt on one knee, aiming their loaded rifles towards the horizon from which the howls originated.
After the initial panic, Julian forced himself to calm down.
He understood that in a wilderness battle of this scale, his limited combat ability would be of no help.
So, together with the one-eyed guide Hassan, he dragged Ethan to a safe position inside the defensive perimeter.
Although Yan Xilou had no weapon, he had somehow climbed to the top of a sand dune on the periphery of the defensive works.
He was observing.
He was observing those "food processors" about to make their entrance.
Soon, those things appeared.
Against the silhouette of the distant horizon and sand dunes, massive, ominous black silhouettes emerged densely one after another.
Their numbers were so vast!
Their movement was so swift!
One moment they were merely blurry black dots on the horizon.
And the next, they had already transformed into a black tide, sweeping towards their location at a suffocating speed.
It wasn't until they charged to within less than a hundred meters of the caravan that everyone, by the last rays of the setting sun and the light of a pale crescent moon rising in the sky, could clearly see their true, contradictory, and terrifying visages.
They were a pack of "hyenas".
Or rather, a pack of giant monsters that shared ninety percent similarity in form with hyenas.
Their bodies were two sizes larger than the biggest spotted hyenas of the African savannah, their streamlined forms higher in the front and lower in the back covered in coarse, pitch-black fur.
Pairs of eyes glowing with a green phosphorescence in the darkness brimmed with nothing but pure, unadulterated hunger and malice.
Their greatest difference from ordinary hyenas lay in their "mouths".
They lacked the sharp canine teeth and fangs ordinary carnivores use to tear flesh.
What appeared was a huge maw that seemed forcibly torn open, unable to close properly, lined with countless folds of rough, sandpaper-like keratin.
The scene that unfolded next, however, utterly shattered their worldview.
After charging into this area, that army of hyenas actually ignored Lin Jie's group—who were standing ready for battle and exuding the strong scent of living humans—as if they were invisible.
Those green eyes filled with hungry desire seemed completely unable to see these fresh morsels hiding behind camels and makeshift sand-and-stone barricades.
"What's going on?!"
A young Cairo Branch guard exclaimed in a voice full of disbelief.
He watched helplessly as a huge hyena charged past a spot less than five meters from him, yet it never so much as glanced his way!
The hyena at the forefront suddenly halted its charge upon reaching a patch of open sandy ground.
Its nose, covered in keratin folds, sniffed the air, as if locating a faint signal coming from underground.
Then it began frantically digging at the sand with its forelimbs.
Amidst the flying sand, the outline of an adult Saharan gazelle—foaming at the mouth, limbs stiff, yet its body still showing signs of life—was dug out from beneath the sand.
As the first gazelle was unearthed, the pupils of Lin Jie and the others contracted.
They shifted their gaze from the pack of hyenas back to the seemingly tranquil oasis sands around them.
Only at this moment did they discover.
Scattered and half-buried along the edge of this oasis bathed in the bloody sunset, were countless animal "corpses" concealed by yellow sand, only a horn, a section of spine, or a stiff tail protruding.
There were gazelles, fennec foxes, jerboas, and even a few large African wild dogs.
They were all frozen in the final moment of death.
Earlier, their attention had been captivated by the palm trees and murky lake water presenting an illusion of "vitality".
Lin Jie and the others had completely failed to notice these "road signs" of death and ill omen hidden right at their feet.
The hyena that dug up the Saharan gazelle did not, like an ordinary predator, use its claws and teeth to tear at the prey's throat.
It slowly opened its maw.
"Pfft!"
A milky-white flood of natron mucus engulfed the entire body of the poor gazelle.
"Sssssssssss—"
Under the covering of that natron mucus, the gazelle's body began rapidly dehydrating, its flesh and blood withering and hardening within mere seconds.
A thick layer of white salt crust crystallized and formed on its body surface.
Finally, when that terrifying "ssss" sound ceased.
The Saharan gazelle had transformed into a salt corpse, utterly identical to those Bedouin statues in the village!
And the hyena that had completed its work, satisfied, gently nuzzled the now rock-hard "artwork" with its mouth, then picked it up and began dragging it deeper into the saline-alkali land.
This was simply a massacre, an efficient food processing operation!
"I understand now."
Julian's voice drifted eerily across the defensive position.
"This isn't predation. This is cooperation!"
"A perfect symbiosis transcending species boundaries!"
"The Canopic Wasps are the 'anesthetists' and 'organ extractors'. They subdue the ingredients and clear out the internal parts most prone to decay in advance, providing the initial breeding ground for their offspring."
"And these hyenas, they are the 'embalmers' and 'desiccators'. They are responsible for performing the final and most crucial external dehydration and salt-curing preservation on those already-processed semi-finished products."
"Both are indispensable! Together, they have constructed a self-sufficient 'living mummy processing plant' within this barren salt marsh!"